How to Cut a Mango with a Pit - SECRET HACKS

How to cut a mango with a pit?! I've got you covered as your resident mango cutter expert. Use my top-secret tips to get perfect mangoes every time.

Jump to:

• How to cut a mango with a pit
• How to choose ripe mangoes
• Hedgehog method - for a pretty display
• Cup method - the lazy man's way
• Peeling method - for precise slices or cubes
• How to cut mangoes
• Trending Recipes

How to cut a mango with a pit

You're looking at the mango, the mango is looking back at you. You're thinking:

• how do I get the seed out of the mango?
• how do you cut the mango around the pit?
• what is the easiest way to cut a mango?

Lo and behold, I have come to answer your tropical fruit prayers. Welcome to mango 101 - Pick one of my no bulls*** methods below to become a mango carving expert in no time (or your money back). In no time, you can make delicious Asian mango desserts!

How to choose ripe mangoes

First things first, you need to start with RIPE mangoes that are good quality. Else you will be fighting with mushy, brown, and/or mangoes with random dry spots inside (you know what I mean). Here's how to spot good mangoes at the store:

• Smell: GOOD mangoes should smell distinctly fragrant around the stem. If it smells alcoholic, then it's too old. If there's NO smell then its likely not ripe yet.
• Appearance: no visible grey and mushy-looking parts of the skin and ideally a uniform texture for the whole fruit. It's okay to have brown spots though. If you see dried sap near the stem, this means the mango is likey to be more sweet and ripe.
• Touch: it should have some give like a ripe peach or plum. If your finger sinks into the skin or feel soggy, this means the mango is TOO ripe and it's probably brown inside. You also shouldn't feel any random spots being super soft - this means it's spoiling. If it's rock hard, the mango isn't ready to eat and is bitter.

If your mangoes are too hard, place it in a paper bag and close it for 3 days. This method traps the ethylene gas from the fruit, forcing it to ripen faster naturally.

Hedgehog method - for a pretty display

Use this method if you care about having beautifully presented mangoes for your dinner guests!

• Hold mango vertically with the stem up. The meat of the mango is in each rounder part of the fruit (the cheeks).
• Cut down the length of the mango starting ~½ inch away from the stem. This is to cut the cheeks off while not being blocked by the pit/seed.
• Take each pit and slice a grid pattern. Pop the mango to invert the skin, creating a hedgehog shape.

You can either serve the hedgehog mangoes like this, which is a pretty way to present the fruit! However, if you need the mango cubes, you can also take it a step further and manually slice off the cubes of the hedgehog OR follow the cup method next.

Cup method - the lazy man's way

Use this method if you want mango slices/cubes and presentation isn't super important. This is great for garnishing jellies, mango pudding, and mango chia seed pudding.

• Follow the steps of the hedgehog method before slicing it into a grid.
• Take each mango cheek and scoop the edge of a glass into the bottom.
• Scrape the cup's edge along the inner skin of each cheek to crave out the meat.

This method is quick but dirty - prepare for some mango juice to squeeze onto your table.

Peeling method - for precise slices or cubes

Use this method if you want sharp and precisely shaped mango slices/cubes. It's the most labour-intensive method but will yield neat shapes.

• Use a SHARP vegetable peeler to remove all skin off the mango.
• Cut each cheek of the mango.
• Cut off the meat off the slides of the pit.
• Slice or dice into cubes.

Fruity Asian Recipes

How to cut mangoes